Conventional reinforced hose assemblies have been used for the transfer of various fluids, such as gasoline, petroleum-based products, chemicals, food products, and others.
These conventional reinforced hose assemblies may be suitable for most applications where rigidity and strength are of primary importance, but many fail for high pressure applications where a small bend radius is necessary. Furthermore, conventional reinforced hoses have either a smooth inner surface, to allow for turbulence free fluid flow and ease of system cleaning, or a convoluted inner surface with undulations present on the inner and outer diameters, which provide for easy routing and improved resistance to kinks. These undulations cause pressure drops and flow disturbances throughout the length of the conventional reinforced hose assembly, which adds unnecessary pumping and fluid transfer costs to the application. These undulations also hold residual material making it difficult to clean the system for applications which use short shelf life materials or applications which use different materials and batches. The residual material build-up may result in contamination of subsequent material runs.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a reinforced hose assembly that is capable of forming small bend radii and provides a uniform inner radial surface.